Enterprise career management’s place in HR, a luxury or a must have?

Fast Company shows the average employee stays in a job for 4.4 years. Employers have a limited amount of time to engage employees and keep them around.

So, is enterprise career management a luxury or a must have? Simply put, it’s a must-have. Deciding whether to offer career management solutions isn’t the hard part. The ways in designing and approaching career management offerings is the tricky part. If designed incorrectly (or over-engineered), enterprise career management offerings will be a waste of time.

A career management approach should be a component of a company’s overall talent management strategy. With talent management, you are looking at the methods you take to maximize, align and leverage talent. This is a company-wide approach. Career management is how this plays out at the individual employee level (i.e. how does an employee’s career aspirations fit into the larger picture).

First up, you must educate employees and managers on career management. Apple and Oracle value the power of this knowledge by providing helpful courses on the topic. Educating employees facilitates their understanding of their role in the career management process.

Role of the employer

Companies should have clearly defined career paths. They should educate employees on current and future career opportunities, how to grow within the company as well as their industry. A solid understanding of available opportunities should lead to higher levels of employee engagement. Employees tend to work harder if they know what opportunities lie ahead.

There are different ways to incorporate a form of career management solutions into your current business. Offer to pay for employees to attend professional growth workshops, conferences, webinars and other events that focus on how to grow your career. Create a monthly newsletter with company news, open positions, new clients and other such exciting announcements. Companies can also invest in enterprise career management solutions through human capital management software companies that will create and deploy such offerings. This way, employers can rest-assured knowing their employees are taken care of with little to no extra effort on the employer’s end.

Role of the employee

Employees should first understand and embrace where they want their career to go. They need to be self-aware, understand their passions as well as strengths, and set realistic career goals. Treat career management opportunities like creating a career roadmap. Once an employee creates this roadmap, they can take advantage of the specific career management opportunities available through their company.

So, is it a luxury or a must-have?

Companies that don’t provide career management services are robbing employees of a highly beneficial HR offering – one that sets companies apart from competitors. In the end, it’s a must-have for companies looking to attract and retain top talent.

The most important thing as a leader is to understand the career plans of your employees. The easiest way to do this is to ask and provide a service that enables them to pursue their goals.